Health Care Delays Squeeze Patients in State High-Risk Pools

Many state and federal insurance pools covering patients with pre-existing conditions are set to close Dec. 31, but it’s an open question whether patients will be able to find policies on Healthcare.gov in time.

“This is what keeps me up at night,” Tanya Case told me earlier this week.

Case is executive director of the Oklahoma Temporary High Risk Pool, funded by the federal government to sell insurance to people denied coverage by private health insurers. Her worry is about some 300,000 people around the country in programs like hers who now must quickly find health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

“One lady expressed to me, ‘I’m in the middle of chemotherapy, and then I have to deal with this on top of everything else and quite frankly, I’m scared to death.’ That’s what she told me, and you hear that
or a version of that quite frequently,” Case said.

People like this were supposed to among the biggest winners under the Affordable Care Act because insurers can no longer discriminate based on pre-existing conditions. As a result, the cost for many is expected to go down substantially.

Advocates say they still hope that will happen despite the current glitches.

“We’re all in this tough spot right now of guessing whether people will reasonably be able to get through” to purchase insurance on Healthcare.gov, said Stacey Pogue, senior policy analyst for the Center for
Public Policy Priorities in Austin, Texas.

The concern is particularly acute in the 36 states that are relying on Healthcare.gov to process insurance enrollments. The other states and the District of Columbia are running their own marketplaces.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the agency believes that there is enough time for individuals in the high-risk pools to sign up by Dec. 15 for coverage that begins Jan. 1.

Federal officials have pledged that Healthcare.gov will be fixed by the end of November. But even if they are true to their word, Pogue said, that would only give consumers two weeks to choose a plan and enroll.

“I just don’t know yet whether it’s reasonable,” Pogue said.

Texas is one of 14 states that plan to close its high-risk pool by Jan. 1, according to Case’s group. Texas gives its insurance commissioner a bit of discretion to certify that insurance options are “reasonably available” before the state plan shuts down, Pogue said.

A federal program set up under the Affordable Care Act that serves much the same purpose (and funds Oklahoma’s program) will similarly close then. Last week, Indiana became the first state to delay its program’s closure, giving its 6,800 participants another month to find new plans. “The state of Indiana will ensure that these Hoosiers, who are facing significant health care challenges, maintain their health coverage until the problems with the federal marketplace are resolved,” Republican Gov. Mike Pence said
in a statement.

Other states are considering similar moves, Case said.

Although some consumers have been successful signing up for new coverage, she said, “I would say that the majority have not been.”

In California, officials are feeling good about the transition. “There are no barriers I am aware of with people from California’s high-risk pool or anyone with pre-existing conditions getting covered for
January,” said Ken Wood, a senior adviser for Covered California, the state’s insurance marketplace. “Based on the types of calls our service center has received, these individuals were reaching out the first week of October to understand their options and beginning to move through the enrollment process.”

Case said she and her colleagues in other states are encouraging consumers to shop around by calling different insurance companies — even if they cannot yet enroll on the marketplace website. They can use
an online calculator to determine their eligibility for premium subsidies.

The program Case runs will shut Dec. 31 because it is funded by the federal government. But Oklahoma runs a second program that isn’t set to close right away, she said.

A map of states with high-risk pools for those with
pre-existing conditions that deem them medically uninsurable. Similar federally-funded
plans under the Affordable Care Act may not be shown here. (Source: National
Association of State Comprehensive Insurance Plans)

3 comments

allows you to with a few entries to get accurate information on what plans are available through the exchange and will give you all the plans in Oklahoma under the Affordable Care Act. It can calculate the premium subsidy you may be eligible for based on your adjusted gross income (Line 37 of your 1040 tax return).

Once you see the plans press the ‘How to Buy’ button which gives you the information needed by directly contacting the insurance company. Oklahoma has the lowest rates in the federal exchange.

My wife is uninsured with a pre-exisitng condition and we will be purchasing a Blue Cross Blue Shield policy with a $65.00 monthl;y permium with a total out of pocket yearly cost of $2,250.

It sounds like this article is about state laws mandating the immediate closure of supplemental care systems in light of the ACA without regard to the effects.

Why is this buried in an offhand mention of Texan law and implied to be the fault of the ACA? Whatever I think of the ACA, if states have the option to float people until they get insured and they’re not, then the states should pass those laws.

I mean, seriously, this sounds like people who sell a house before they sign papers on a new house and then scramble for someplace to live in the meantime. The states can plan for these things between hare-brained plans to secede…

John,
You make it sound like all state legislatures meet year round and can just fix things. Well, Texas only meets every 2 years and Missouri only meets from Jan to May 15th. Only 10 states have legislatures that meet for the whole year.
So I am not sure how you think they can anticipate a problem made by the federal government and fix it. Actually, why doesn’t the federal government just keep their pool open?
In addition, these state pools are not supposed to be available after Dec. 31st under ACA. The state fix you are talking about is opening up exchanges and it is a little late for the state who opted out to open up exchanges.

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